Japan marks 1 year since quake, tsunami disaster

High school students mourn the victims of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, northeastern Japan, Sunday.

High school students mourn the victims of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, northeastern Japan, Sunday.

Photo: Itsuo Inouye

Photo: Itsuo Inouye

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High school students mourn the victims of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, northeastern Japan, Sunday.

High school students mourn the victims of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, northeastern Japan, Sunday.

Photo: Itsuo Inouye

Japan marks 1 year since quake, tsunami disaster

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TOKYO — Japan on Sunday was remembering the massive earthquake and tsunami that struck the nation one year ago, killing just over 19,000 people and unleashing the world’s worst nuclear crisis in a quarter century.

Along the tsunami-battered northeastern coast, in Tokyo and elsewhere, memorial ceremonies were planned to mark 2:46 p.m. — the precise moment the magnitude-9.0 earthquake hit on March 11, 2011.

The quake was the strongest recorded in Japan’s history, and set off a tsunami that towered more than 65 feet in some spots along the northeastern coast, destroying thousands of homes and wreaking widespread destruction.

Today, some 325,000 people rendered homeless remain in temporary housing. While much of the debris has been gathered into massive piles, very little rebuilding has begun.

“I wish I could go back to my old house and get back our normal life again,” said Hyakuaiko Konno, a 64-year-old woman from the Ishinomaki coast who has been living in temporary housing for the past seven months.

The government says the damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, where three reactor cores melted down after the tsunami knocked out their vital cooling systems, is stable and that radiation coming from the plant has subsided significantly. But the plant’s chief acknowledged to journalists visiting the complex recently that it remains in a fragile state, and makeshift equipment — some mended with tape — could be seen keeping crucial systems running.

Syria assaults opposition as diplomacy staggers

BEIRUT — Syria launched a long-anticipated assault to crush the opposition in the rebellious north on Saturday, bombarding its main city with tank shells from all sides and clashing with rebel fighters struggling to hold back an invasion.

President Bashar Assad rejected any immediate negotiations with the opposition, striking a further blow to already staggering international efforts for talks to end to the conflict. Assad told U.N. envoy Kofi Annan that a political solution is impossible as long as “terrorist groups” threaten the country.

The opposition’s political leadership has also rejected dialogue, saying talk is impossible after a yearlong crackdown that the U.N. estimates has killed more than 7,500 people. That makes it likely that the conflict will continue to edge toward civil war.

Syrian forces have been building up for days around Idlib, the capital of a hilly, agricultural province along the Syria-Turkey border that has been a hotbed of protests against Assad’s regime.

Saturday morning, troops blasted Idlib for hours with dozens of tank shells as the forces moved to encircle the town, an Associated Press team in Idlib reported.

Families fled their homes, carrying blankets and a few other meager belongings. Others huddled in homes.

Pentagon aims to resume military help for Yemen

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon plans to resume programs that would pay for military training and equipment in Yemen, nearly a year after halting aid to the key counterterrorism partner because of escalating internal chaos.

While no agreements have been cemented, U.S. defense officials said as much as $75 million in military assistance could begin to flow this year. The officials said the Pentagon and State Department are putting together a letter to send to Congress to request restarted the aid.

The plan is in line with the Obama administration’s intention to provide significant security and civilian aid to Yemen in 2012-13 as long as the Middle Eastern country makes progress toward a new government and the money is kept from insurgents.

One senior military official said discussions have begun over how best the United States can help Yemen, which is putting a new U.S.-backed government in place. The official said it may be difficult to relaunch the counterterrorism training that was suspended about a year ago because Yemeni forces are engaged in battle with the al-Qaida-linked insurgency based in the country.

Israeli airstrikes kill 15 Gaza militants

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israel pounded Gaza for the second day in a row Saturday, trading airstrikes and rocket fire with Palestinian militants and killing 15 of them as the deadliest Gaza violence in over a year showed no signs of abating.

Despite Egyptian efforts to mediate a cease-fire, Palestinians fired more than 100 rockets, some striking major cities in southern Israel and seriously wounding an Israeli civilian. The military responded with more than a dozen airstrikes and the targeted killings of Palestinian militants from various Gaza organizations.

Israel’s lauded Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted more than 25 projectiles. Still, residents were told to stay close to home and the cities of Beersheba, Ashdod and Ashkelon called off school for Sunday.

Deadly hostage raid stuns Nigeria’s home of Islam

SOKOTO, Nigeria — While violence has engulfed much of Nigeria’s Muslim north in the last year, the city of Sokoto in its far northwest offered a slow-moving glimpse of peace in the nation’s Muslim north, anchored by a faith enshrined here more than 200 years ago.

Camels loaded down with produce trudge across sandy roads as blacksmiths beat hot iron into crude hoes and machetes for farmers. The Sultan of Sokoto, the city’s traditional ruler, remains the top spiritual leader of Muslims across the country and a moderate voice amid increasing attacks by a radical Islamist sect known as Boko Haram.

Now, however, that peace has been shattered. A failed raid Thursday by British and Nigerian commandos left a Briton and an Italian hostage dead. It also opened a new front on Nigeria’s ongoing struggle with terrorism, showing any region across its north can be attacked — and anyone, including foreigners, could be targeted.

Taliban prisoners agree to transfer

KABUL, Afghanistan — Five top Taliban leaders held by the U.S. in the Guantanamo Bay military prison told a visiting Afghan delegation they agree to a proposed transfer to the tiny Gulf state of Qatar, opening the door for a possible move aimed at bringing the Taliban into peace talks, Afghan officials said Saturday.

The U.S. is considering transferring the five from the prison in Cuba to a presumably less restrictive custody in Qatar as an incentive for the Taliban to enter negotiations — though Washington has not yet outright agreed to the step, and some in Congress oppose it.

Talks with the Taliban are seen as key to bringing some level of calm to Afghanistan, allowing American troops to come home without the country descending into further chaos. But months of efforts to cobble together talks have failed.